Chambers hearings in civil proceedings in the High Court, the District Court, the Lands Tribunal and the Family Court will be open to the public from July 18. They can be reported in the same way as other open hearings.

The Judiciary today published Practice Directions 25.1 and 25.2 to open up such hearings to the public. The move will enhance transparency in the judicial process. The measures will come into operation on July 18 to give the legal profession time to make appropriate arrangements.

2 exceptions

The practice directions provide for only two kinds of exceptions. Chambers hearings will not be open to the public where this is required by statute, for example, in adoption proceedings.

Secondly, the proceedings identified in Practice Directions 25.1 will usually not be open to the public since by reason of their nature, the reasons laid down in Article 10 of the Bill of Rights Ordinance for excluding the press and the public are considered to be usually satisfied.

These proceedings include matters relating to children and financial provisions in matrimonial proceedings, ex-parte applications for injunctions and similar orders. However, in these instances, the court may, applying Article 10, order the hearing to be open to the public.